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Rain (Spell Type)
Rain spells (or simply rains) are a unique type of area of effect direct damage spell available to wizards, magicians, druids, and shamans. In brief, rains are direct damage spells that strike a maximum of four times over the course of three "waves" of damage. Detailed mechanics Every rain spell possesses the following characteristics: *Detrimental spell with an AoE radius that centers on the spell's target. *Deals damage in three waves. The first wave occurs immediately when the spell finishes casting. The second wave occurs three seconds later, and the third wave occurs three seconds after that. *Can hit a maximum of four times in total. *Can strike the caster if the caster stands in the AoE radius. The caster being struck does not count as one of the spell's "hits," and can occur even if all "hits" of the spell have already been used up. (For instance, if the caster hits two opponents with the first wave of the spell, and then hits two opponents with the second wave of the spell, the caster still can be struck by the third wave, even though no opponents will take damage during that wave.) *Can be cast on allies (will not damage them, but will center the AoE around them). *Are not affected by damage-boosting focus effects. *''Are'' affected by percentage-based elemental vulnerabilities resulting from debuffs (e.g. those inflicted by high-level Malo spells or druid debuffs). *Are affected by the Spell Damage stat (often at a very favorable ratio). *Can proc Mana Flare type abilities or spell-based weapon procs, but only on the target of the initial cast. Strategy It is impossible to achieve the full possible damage of a rain spell when fighting a single target. At best, a single target can be hit three times (once during each of the three waves), making the maximum damage of the spell only 75% of what is possible when striking two or more targets at once. Despite this, casting a rain spell on a single target may still be desirable for increasing burst damage. Since rains generally have a reasonable cast time (usually 3 to 4 seconds, base), a high total damage, and a long cooldown, casting a rain spell on a target and then following it up with a large single-target damage spell can create a sudden burst of damage, suitable for finishing off a target in a hurry, The mana efficiency of doing this may or may not be good, depending on the class and situation.involved. Most rain spells become remarkably mana-efficient when all four hits are used Since maximum efficiency can be achieved against as few as two targets being tanked side-by-side, rains are often good spells to use in split tanking strategies. Rains can also be used as four-target AoE nukes for quad kiting at the same mana efficiency. Lastly, rains usually have an exceptionally high conversion ratio for the Spell Damage stat, often doubling the ratio of a single-target damage spell for each hit of the rain spell (a rain that connects with all four hits would thus deal around 8x as much bonus damage from the Spell Damage stat, compared to a cast of an ordinary single-target damage spell). This ratio is so high that Spell Damage can end up accounting for 15% or more of the damage on high level players' rain spells, even when wearing equipment from single-group content.